Although the default time settings vary from one report type to another, the Time Selection screen allows you to tailor this dimension to meet your research objectives. Table 1 on the Data Source Selection page highlights the default time options for each report type. Using the Standard and Advance selection options on your Time Selection screen you can choose to include monthly data since 2002 and/or annual data since 1992, as well as add YTD aggregations and growth rates to your report. Note: Port-level data only goes back to 2003.


Navigating the Time Selections

There are two options in the time dimension: “Standard Selection” and “Advanced Selection.” When changing from Advanced to Standard Selection, make sure to click the “Clear All Selections” button first.

Standard Selection follows the format laid out in the other dimensions, allowing you to make selections manually or using the time selection options (e.g. “Selection method” and “Level”). Additionally, you can elect to have time data shown in reverse order with this option. This means that your time data will appear along your x-axis with the most recent to the right of the previous month – a useful tool when graphing or charting market trends over time. Time selections are absolute, not relative. You can specify you want January, February, and March 2005 and that's what you get. If you save this report and bring it back in a later month, you'll get the same time periods you requested last time.

Advanced Selection approaches time in a different manner, allowing you to create year-to-date aggregations and calculating period-to-period changes and growth rates. The Advanced Selections can be either absolute or relative to the current time period (for example, the previous twelve months). With relative time periods, if you save the report and then reload it, you'll get the time periods relative to the current time period, not the period in effect when you saved the report. A word of caution when using the advanced selection options – don’t forget to save your work (there’s a “Save Selection” button beneath the time selection details) before viewing the results!

Figures A and B below highlight how to access the main Time Selection screen. Choose "Time" from the Selection menu on your main report page and the Time Selection Screen will appear. Here, you must select the radio button next to either Standard Selection or Advanced Selection depending on your interest.

Figure A: Selecting Time from the Selection Criteria List

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Figure B: Time Selection Screen

More on the Advanced Selection Option

To start, you should get a sense of the default Advanced Sets in your report. Depending on which report type you chose on your Data Selection screen, any of the following "Advanced Sets" could appear: Monthly, Monthly - 1, Monthly - 2, Annual, Annual - 4, Current YTD, Cumulative YTD, and/or Cumulative YTD - 2. These selections tell the system what time periods to include in your report. If more than one Advanced Set shows up in the listing, all of them are being applied to your report. For example, in the Standard Report - Annual Imports data selection, you'll see both Current YTD and Annual show up in the Advanced Set listing. The Current YTD set results in the year-to-date time period that shows up in that type of report while the Annual set accounts for the four annual periods that show up.

You can add new sets, edit the existing ones, or even delete them all using the "Add," "Edit," and "Delete" buttons to the right of the Advanced Sets box (see Figures C and D). This determines which time periods show up in your report. To edit or delete an existing time set, highlight it and press the Edit or Delete button. The Advanced Selection options will appear blank as in Figure C until you specify Add, Edit, or Delete. By selected Add, Edit,or Delete you can make the options available, as shown in Figure D. Unlike in the other Selection Criteria dimensions, you must ALWAYS save changes made to the Advanced Selection tab (see the red circle in Figure D).

Note: Deleting or Editing the advanced time selections impacts your current report only. (It also effects the saved report if you save it.) The time you pick a Data Source Selection, you'll get the system-defined default time periods again.

Hint: If you'd like to get more acquainted with how advanced time period sets are done, pick any of the Data Selection items, go into Time, look at the Advanced Sets, and Edit them. This will let you see what settings resulted in the time periods you see.

Figure C: Advance Selections Before Add, Edit, Delete Selection

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Figure D: Activated Advanced Selection Options

More on these individual options:

• Name. This is where the name of whatever set you are using will appear (Monthly, Monthly - 1, Monthly - 2, Annual, Annual - 4, Current YTD, Cumulative YTD, or Cumulative YTD - 2). If you choose to Add your own set, the system will automatically name is "Advanced 1," however you can change it to anything you want!
• Periodicity. Here you choose either annual or monthly data. You cannot have both in the same time set. If you wish to have both annual and monthly data in your report, you must create two separate time sets.
• Show in Reverse Order. Here you can choose to show your data in reverse chronological order. The most recent periods show up first and the oldest last.
• Year-To-Date Aggregations. Select this option if you want to include a YTD sum as one of your time settings.
• Base Period. This is the most recent year or month (again depending on what you selected for periodicity) that you wish to have in your report.
• Previous Periods. This is the number of previous periods (again this could be months or years) that you want in your report. This section allows you to conduct historical time series analysis. Since the current period is usually shown (unless "Exclude Base Period" is selected), your report will typically show the number of previous periods plus one. For example, if it is 2005 and I want to see historical annual data since 2002, I would select October 2005 as my base period and type in "3" for my "Previous Periods" category.
• Lag. This represents the spacing between periods. If the lag is 1, then the periods are consecutive. If lag is 2, then it goes over every other period. For example, if the base period is January 2005, there are 3 previous periods selected, and there is a lag of 2, then the months on the report would be January 2005, November 2004, September 2004, and July 2004. (Similarly, one previous period with a lag of 12 would show you January 2005 and January 2004.)
• Exclude Base Period. Check this box if you wish to remove the Base Period (the current month or year) from the report.
• Display. You can display values, growth rates, or values and growth rates. If you choose Values, only the unit(s) of measure that you selected on the Measures Selection screen will be included. The Growth Rate option calculates the rate of growth by dividing the change in value by the original value. Again, growth rates will be calculated and displayed for the units of measure that you selected on your Measures Selection screen. And finally, choosing Values and Growth Rate allows you to include both options in your report.
• Growth Type. If you have growth rates selected in the Display field, you will be able to use this field to choose exactly which type of growth rate you want to calculate. Standard: Growth rate between values specified is calculated. Average Annual: This is the same as the Standard growth type except adjustments are made for monthly growth rates. If Average Annual is selected, the monthly growth rate is divided by the number of days in that particular month and then multiplied by 365. This selection will only affect monthly growth rates. It will not affect annual or YTD growth rates.
• Between. This field will select which values the report will use to calculate the growth rates. All Periods: Growth rates are calculated from values for each time period and the time period following it. Rates are only calculated for time periods included in the report. (If you're showing 2002, 2003, and 2004 in your report, doing an "All Periods" growth rate shows two percentage changes -- one between 2002 and 2003, and then between 2003 and 2004.) First and Last Period: Growth rates are calculated from values for the first time period and the last time period included in the report. In any case, these are simple percentage change calculations. If trade is 2 in one period and 3 in the next, the growth rate is 50 percent (three minus two, divided by two, times one hundred).
• Save Selection. Hit this button when you have finished making your customizations to the Time Selection screen otherwise your edits will not take effect and will return to the default.

• The current month is the default time period if the existing ones are cleared and nothing else is selected. The report page will load without a time header, but all the data listed will be for the current month of imports or exports depending on the type of report you chose in the Data Source Selection screen.
• USA Trade Online automatically saves any changes you make to your commodity, country, district or port (as applicable), and measures criteria before you view the resulting table. Only the "Advanced Selection" option in the time dimension requires you to save your changes first.
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